The present invention relates to an information providing apparatus which provides information by the use of a radio communication network and a portable communication terminal which receives the information.
Referring to FIG. 20, a conventional information providing apparatus and portable communication terminal device using a radio communication network will be described.
A communication terminal 122 is connected to a radio communication network 120 via a transmission/reception antenna 122A of the communication terminal 122 and a transmission/reception antenna 120A of the radio communication network 120. The radio communication network 120 is the communication network managed by a radio communication service provider. The radio communication network is connected to a public communication network 121 such as a telephone line network, a packet network, an ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), a private line, and so on.
A server 123 is a computer, connected to the public communication network 121 of a computer communication company. The server 123 is the server which carries out a communication processing and a data transfer processing in accordance with an access from a user using the communication terminal 122. The server is provided with a data base 123DB in which service information is stored.
The communication terminal 122 is constructed so that it may be carried and moved with the user. The communication terminal is a combination of a portable computer 122C and a communication-processible portable telephone 122B. A particular communication protocol for a data transfer is used between the portable telephone 122B of the communication terminal 122 and the radio communication network 120. On one hand, the data is not specifically converted between the server 123 and the portable computer 122C of the communication terminal 122. Furthermore, for the access from the portable computer 122C of the communication terminal 122 to the server 123, a software for a computer communication only referred generally to as a xe2x80x9cterminal soft (Terminal Application Software)xe2x80x9d or a xe2x80x9cviewer (Viewer)xe2x80x9d is used.
When the communication service provider which provides the radio communication network 120 is also a manager of the server 123, in some cases, the server 123 and the data base 123DB are directly connected to the radio communication network 120. In this case, the communication terminal 122 is a single portable telephone. The communication service provider provides such services as a voice mail service for distributing digitized voice data, an incoming call transfer service for transferring the incoming call to other previously-registered telephone number and the like by the use of the server 123. The user having the portable communication terminal 122 subscribes to the communication service provider which manages the radio communication network 120, so that the services can be provided for the user.
In the conventional information providing apparatus described above, since the portable communication terminal is the combination of the portable computer and the portable telephone, it is inconvenient to carry the portable communication terminal. Furthermore, in case of communicating with the server, it is necessary to operate both of the portable computer and the portable telephone, respectively. In addition, a number of keys are disposed on the portable computer, and the keys are constructed so that they may be used in general-purpose for operating the portable computer. Accordingly, a key assignment of a communication operation is not displayed. Therefore, a user""s operability becomes worse.
Furthermore, in the conventional information providing apparatus described above, the portable communication terminal is the combination of the portable computer and the portable telephone. Accordingly, the software for the computer communication only must be installed into the portable computer. Otherwise, it is not possible to communicate with the server and to obtain the information from the data base.
Furthermore, in the conventional information providing apparatus described above, when the portable communication terminal is a single portable telephone, it is not provided with a processing function for communicating with an external information providing server and for obtaining the information from the data base. Accordingly, it is not possible to access to an information providing service company and the information providing server on an Internet.
Furthermore, in the conventional information providing apparatus described above, when the portable communication terminal is a single portable telephone, it is not provided with a decoding function for decoding external image information and a processing function for processing the image information. Accordingly, it is not possible to obtain and display the external image information.
From such a viewpoint, it is an object of the present invention to provide an information providing apparatus comprising a portable communication terminal connectable to a radio communication network and a portable communication terminal wherein the portable communication terminal is a small-sized resulting in having an excellent portability and a good operability, the multimedia information can be obtained from the server connected to the radio communication network or the external information communication network, the obtained multimedia information can be outputted to a human-machine interface means, the portable communication terminal can access to the server connected to the external information communication network so as to obtain the multimedia information from the server without installing the terminal application software or the like, the viewer and the like into the portable communication terminal, the obtained multimedia information is processed or converted in accordance with an output capability of the human-machine interface means so that the information can be outputted to the human-machine interface means.
In order to achieve the above object, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information providing apparatus comprises a portable communication terminal having a telephone communication means which accesses to a server or a data base connected to a portable telephone system network so as to receive multimedia information from the server or the data base and a human-machine interface means for which the multimedia information is provided from the telephone communication means, and a portable communication terminal server having a data base in which the multimedia information is stored, an external communication processing means which accesses to the server connected to an external information communication network and receives the multimedia information from the server, a data processing means for processing or converting the multimedia information from the external communication processing means, and a transfer means for transferring the multimedia information from the external communication processing means or the data processing means to the portable communication terminal via the portable telephone system network.
In order to achieve the above object, according to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a portable communication terminal, wherein a telephone communication means accesses to a server or a data base connected to a portable telephone system network so as to receive the multimedia information from the server or data base, so that the multimedia information is provided for the human-machine interface. In the portable communication terminal server, the external communication processing means accesses to the server connected to the external information communication network so as to receive the multimedia information from the server. The data processing means processes or converts the received multimedia information. The transfer means transfers the multimedia information from the external communication processing means or the data processing means to the portable communication terminal via the portable telephone system network.